Phantoms
by Sithisis
Summary: sans knows that one day, everything he knows and loves will be ripped away by another reset. soriel.


Inspired by dialogue from the Undertale game. Please feel free to leave a Kudos or a comment if you've enjoyed this :)

* * *

152 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 42 seconds.

After the human left, and with news of king Asgore's death, the underground was in chaos. The queen took the position to lead the monsters, however that did not last long. Her new policy of treating humans who fell underground as friends rather than enemies did not sit well with most monsters.

The death of the king, a hated policy, and the disappearance of the 6 human souls before the 7th human started a rebellion to overthrow the queen. It was Undyne, of course, who spearheaded the revolution. Fueled with fury about what had happened to Asgore mostly, she threw the queen out of the castle with her strength.

The monsters rejoiced when Undyne became the empress of the underground and banished the human-sympathizing queen back to the ruins. New policies were created by empress Undyne, which were more vehement about destroying humanity than Asgore's policies could've ever been.

* * *

157 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes, 15 seconds.

When the queen went back to the ruins, a monster by the name of sans decided to go with her. He took some books from the library, too. - So she wouldn't have to read the same ones over and over again like she did in the past.

The former queen - Toriel - was a nice to live with. She and sans had a lot of fun. Sometimes, Toriel talked about how she would like to see the human again. sans, however, didn't have the heart to tell her about what the human did to his brother. For if he told her that she had protected the human, only to have the human kill his brother, then he wouldn't know how she would react.

* * *

241 days, 6 hours, 21 minutes, 8 seconds.

sans puts his skull near the oven, watching the pie bake. His brother always called his attempts quiches. When he used to tell Toriel knock knock jokes at the door outside of Snowdin, he talked a lot about his brother's bad cooking. After hearing about ice-cold spaghetti that tasted too _strongly_ , Torial had offered to teach him how to make butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

sans continues to watch the pie bake while he waits for the timer to ring. It seems to take forever, and he wishes that it does take forever.

* * *

241 days, 6 hours, 22 minutes, 16 seconds.

Toriel enters the kitchen, kneels down to look at the pie, then at sans.

"sans, who hides in a bakery during Christmas?"

sans grins at Toriel, gets up, and sits at the kitchen table. "who, tori?"

"A mince spy!"

They laugh. Toriel bleats, really, but that's what is endearing about her.

Toriel sits at the table as well, smiling in delight. sans wonders if they could stay like this forever.

* * *

262 days, 3 hours, 2 minutes, 27 seconds.

Oftentimes at night when he is in bed next to Toriel, he is awake. He tries to relax while hearing Toriel breathe peacefully. Toriel looks even more lovely when she's asleep. She still has her kind smile. She is still warm.

sans couldn't help but stare at her with tired eyes. The round and pale glowstone hanging above their bed acting as the moon makes Toriel not only appear lovely, but ethereal.

Gently, he traces a phantom scar on her face. Something left in his memories from another timeline.

Not for the first time, sans wishes that they could stay like this forever.

One day, there will be a reset. It will come suddenly and without mercy or thought of how it would affect the lives of monsters in their timeline. sans knows that there will come a day when everything he knows will be ripped away like how weeds are ripped away from the flowers that they are beside.

* * *

262 days, 3 hours, 2 minutes, 27 seconds.

Toriel smiles into sans' gentle touch.

She remembers when sans was all about 'doing absolutely nothing.' She remembers that despite of sans liking to do 'absolutely nothing,' how thankful she was - and still is - when sans made the promise to protect the human. He didn't even know her name, and he took it upon himself to fulfill her wish. It was as sweet as it was surprising.

Sometimes, Toriel smiles at the thought that perhaps it was herself who had changed sans' demeanor.

* * *

262 days, 3 hours, 3 minutes, 10 seconds.

sans recalls a time when he was known as 'lazy bones.' Papyrus liked to call him that, but sans didn't mind in the past. It was the truth, after all.

sans knows that he himself didn't care for much because he knew from experience that everything he did would be in vain. There's always going to be a reset. Time after time, again and again... so why even bother trying anymore?

It was his brother's amused laughter and having Toriel as his best audience that saved him from those thoughts for a while.

* * *

308 days, 6 hours, 21 minutes, 8 seconds.

Toriel knows that something's wrong. She could tell by the way sans laughs, the way he forces himself to chuckle at her puns as if he has heard of them before. She figures that if there is something wrong, then sans would talk with her in his own time.

However, for any healthy relationship, open communication is a given. Toriel has waited, and she has waited for sans to open up to her long enough.

She confronts him at the kitchen table him one evening, after a very sweet cinnamon-butterscotch pie was sliced and placed in front of both of them.

Toriel takes one bite before she tells sans that she is worried about him.

sans smiles and chuckles sadly, but it is a real smile and a real chuckle this time.

Toriel places her hands over sans' hands, covering them in a warm embrace.

"thank you, tori."

"We're in this together, sans."

* * *

364 days, 6 hours, 21 minutes, 8 seconds.

"We are two broken souls, but we can heal... at least for the time we have together. And that's what matters most."

-R-E-S-E-T-


End file.
